It has been another horrendous week in Palestine as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza. We have heard news reports of the relentless bombing of Gaza and the retaliation of Hamas as framed by the American media. What is behind this military assault? We play an Al Jazeera  news report that frames the issue from an Arab point of view.

President Biden's response to this massacre is to mouth the Israeli talking point that  “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Really?

The fifth most powerful military on the planet, a nuclear power that has Palestine under military occupation, has the right to defend itself against a people with no military, and no control of their land, separation wall, checkpoints which denies freedom of movement between their own villages on their own land. Israel is not on the defense…they are on the offense, and under International law, Palestinians, as an occupied people have the right to resist their occupier. It is Palestine that has the right to resist, the right to defend itself.

Israel and our media present this war as a struggle between equals, both are suffering, both are responsible and they should sit down and decide together that they will live in peace…end of problem. But this is not a clash of equal powers. Israel is a colonial settler states a country that is systematically taking and occupying Palestinian lands and homes since 1948 to this very day. This is a military invasion of a country and under International Law the occupier; Israel cannot take land from the occupied, Palestine.  But the truth of the matter is that Israel and the US systematically ignore International law when it does not suit their purposes.

Yet President Biden has the gall to say that Israel has the right to defend itself.

How do you express your anger, your frustration, your grief, your pain?  There are many ways. For some it is poetry. This week our friend and colleague in Bethlehem, Abed Abusroar, the director of the Al Rowwad Cultural Center in the Aida Refugee Camp wrote and recorded the following poem to speak his truth to power

Recording: Have you done your worst yet?

Abed also sent us his thoughts on Nakba Day, at the end of Ramadan during which the Israeli military attack unarmed worshipers in their Mosque as they prayed. ...
 

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